Peter Holland was educated at Cambridge and, when he left in 1997, was Judith E. Wilson Reader in Drama and Theatre in the Faculty of English. He then served as Director of the Shakespeare Institute at Stratford-upon-Avon and Professor in Shakespeare Studies at the University of Birmingham before coming to Notre Dame in 2002 as the first holder of the McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies, probably the only named chair in Shakespeare anywhere in the world that is not in an English or Literature department.
He was editor of "Shakespeare Survey", the UK’s leading academic Shakespeare journal for 19 years, co-General Editor, with Stanley Wells and Lena Orlin, of "Oxford Shakespeare Topics" (Oxford University Press, over 30 volumes to date); with Adrian Poole, of the 18-volume series "Great Shakespeareans" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2009-13; with Farah Karim-Cooper and Stephen Purcell of a monograph series, "Shakespeare in the Theatre" (Bloomsbury Academic, 15 volumes to date); and, with Zachary Leader and Tiffany Stern, of the Arden Shakespeare 4th series. He has also edited many Shakespeare plays.
In 2007, Holland completed publication of a five-volume series of collections on "Rethinking British Theatre History". He is the author of more than 140 articles on a wide range of topics in Shakespeare studies as well as on David Garrick, English pantomime, Chekhov, farce, Peter Brook, and many other aspects of drama and performance.
In 2007–08, he served as President of the Shakespeare Association of America. He is Chair of the International Shakespeare Association. He was elected an honorary fellow of the Shakespeare Institute and of Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge. In 2012 he received the Sheedy Award at Notre Dame.
